Atonement 2020: The Good News about the Day of Atonement

[Music] we're here on the day of atonement which is really one of the most interesting most unique and one of the most mysterious of the holy days in the bible i'm not calling words out of the air these are descriptors of the word by other people as we mentioned in some of our literature that the day of atonement is a day of fasting not really of feasting because we're fasting today it's a day of afflicting our souls and when we're fasting we don't really feel like rejoicing you know we don't normally rejoice when we fast especially as we get close to the end of the fast but i've noticed as i get older i feel kind of like this a lot kind of like a wilted flower that's one of the joys of getting older is talking to dr jamana one time he says doug getting old is the pits but you know we can also age gracefully if we realize god didn't make us to live forever and fasting gives us a little bit of a flavor what it can be like as we get older there's a day of fasting not feasting necessarily but we can rejoice when we understand the purpose of the day and we understand the purpose of life in preparing the sermon i came across some very interesting information that is a day that is observed by all three abrahamic faiths i didn't realize that before they muslims don't call it the day of atonement but they do fast on this day the jews the muslims christians and even some people individuals in the church of god have some very different ideas about the day of atonement they have some very different ideas about the day of atonement about what it means and what they do on the day of atonement so in the sermon today i want to look at some of these differences and discover why there are differences you know the jews have the same old testament that we have but they have some very different ideas of what to do on the day of atonement you wonder why is that because they're reading the same book so i want to look at some of these differences and determine why the confusion exists and why different groups do different things on the day of atonement you're familiar with the scripture you may be jotted down but in first corinthians 14 33 it says god is not the author of confusion god is not the author of confusion but of peace in all the churches of the saints so when we look at dave atonement we see what various groups do that use the same book in some cases why does the confusion exist well this is one of the keys the god is not the author of confusion so they're getting ideas from other sources and you're also familiar with revelation 12 9 where it says satan has deceived the whole world and that includes as we will see the abrahamic faiths as they are called so what i'd like to do in the sermon today is look at some very clear examples of the confusion and also some of the consequences that result when we pick up these other ideas and proceed down that path and then we'll be looking also at the truth of what the day of atonement actually means so i've chosen as a title for the sermon today the good news about the day of atonement the good news about the day of atonement i think for most of us the good news is going to be when we break our fast tonight and we have something to eat but when we understand the purpose of the day it's also good news when we put it in a perspective that we can understand one of the re one of the things that we are challenged to do every year or every day at the holy days we find in second timothy chapter four so you might want to turn there second timothy chapter four and verse one this is a commission that we're given and we have to abide by as we observe the holy days paul says to timothy i charge you therefore before god in the lord jesus christ who will judge the living and the dead it is appearing and his kingdom preached the word who was preached from the book be ready in season and out of season so this is one of the holy day seasons and as a result we focus on the meaning of the day of atonement and what happens on that day be ready in season and out of season convince and be speak with conviction convince using the facts rebuke some cases involves correction exhort encourage and with all long-suffering and impatiently where we some people say why do we have to go through this again well again if i can appeal to our older congregation that i'm part of we tend to forget we tend to forget i remember talking with a friend of mine who taught at ambassador college years ago back in 1974 there was a lot of turmoil in the church at that time i remember calling him up and talking about some things and then maybe it was somebody else but they were talking about the holy days and the comment was oh yeah the holy day i forgot all about that see when we stop keeping the holy days we forget we forget and these were people that i was talking to that had been in the church for 20 30 years but they'd gone off in a different direction stopped keeping the holy day and forgot when it was held and what it was all about so we're told here to preach the word in season and out of season verse 3 for the time will come and paul is writing in the first century says a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine i don't want to hear that you know we preached that for years i don't hear that i want to hear something new and according to their desires but according to the but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up to themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned unto fables now if we don't preach the truth regularly people forget it and then they'll drift off in another direction that's one of the reasons we have the holy days every year you know i was teaching health education one of the guidelines that we were given was make sure that you cover certain topics every year it's talking about physical things because if you don't then people forget it so we're here to go over the basic meaning of these days so if you'll turn back to leviticus 23 this is where we get the ideas for the day of atonement leviticus chapter 23 and we'll notice verse 27 where it starts talking about the day of atonement we should put some blocks underneath this podium this is way down i have to get my bifocals on so i can read my bible now in verse 27 it says also on the tenth day of the seventh month ten days ago we kept the feast of trumpets so on the tenth day of the month the day of atonement it shall be a holy convocation let's just notice what we're reading here what the old testament tells us is the ten day of the tenth day of the seventh month have a holy convocation that's a commanded assembly you shall afflict your souls and as we will see affliction has to do with fasting and you make an offering you shall do no work on that day for it is the day of atonement to make atonement for you before the lord your god and down in verse 31 you should do so no manner of work there shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings it shall be a sabbath a sabbath of rest and you shall afflict your souls from morning to evening so that's what we're doing here we're here to reflect our souls very plain what else is done on the day of atonement we read back in leviticus 16. and this is where kind of the interesting part comes in we're just going to break into part of this leviticus 16 and verse 8 is that aaron shall cast lots for these two goats that they were to be chosen for seven let's look start there he shall take two goats and present them before the lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting and aaron shall cast lots over the two goats one lot for the lord and the other lot for again depending on what translation you have of the scapegoat or in the hebrew it's azel and aaron shall bring the goat on which the lord's lot fell this would be the first goat and offered as a sin offering but the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat with his eyesight shall be presented alive before the lord to make atonement upon it and to let it go as the scapegoat or the azozo into the wilderness so they sacrificed the first goat they killed it put the blood in the altar and then we pick up the second goat down here in verse 19. it says he shall then sprinkle some of the blood [Music] on it as on the altar with his finger seven times and cleanse it and cast it um and consecrated for the uncleanliness of the children of israel and he's made an atonement when he has made an end of the atoning for the holy place the tabernacle of meeting and the altar he shall bring the live goat so here we're bringing the second goat and aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat confess over at the iniquities of the children of israel and all the transgressions concerning all their sins putting them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man and the goat shall bear itself on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land and he shall release the goat into the wilderness so what we find in these verses if we can summarize it the first goat was killed his blood was put on the altar and it was to be a sacrifice for the sins now it doesn't tell us who the goat is or who the goat represents in these verses you have to go to the new testament to find out what the symbolism means you know in colossians 2 16 and 17 maybe just jot that down it talks about the festivals or shadows of things to come they picture something that is coming in the future now one of the reasons the jews don't understand what we do or don't do what we're doing is they don't accept the new testament though you've got to go to the new testament the number of scriptures talking about the blood of jesus christ is what forgives our sins but i give you two scriptures here in john 2 1 29 it says jesus christ is going to take away the sins of the world jesus christ going to take away the sins of the world john 4 42 said jesus christ is going to be the savior of the world for christians today and we'll go into this a little bit more later the first goat really pictures the role of jesus christ that he's dying for the sins of mankind but the confusion part or the mysterious part or the puzzling part is who is the second goat that's where the confusion comes in but just notice from what we just read the second goat does not die it does not die it's not killed it's not a sin offering you've got to kill something to make it an offering so it doesn't die it's not a sin offering it's also not an offering to a demon because leviticus 17 verse 7 mentions that we that we're not to offer things to a demon and yet some people try to explain well it's kind of like that and maybe they're offering a sacrifice to a demon but they're not doing that notice a couple of other things it bears the sins of the people it didn't die it's not a sin offering it bears or carries the sins of the people and is banished into the wilderness was killed as banished into the wilderness by a fit man so here are six things about the second goat doesn't die it's not a sin offering it's not offered to a demon it bears the sins of the people it's banished to the wilderness and is banished by a fit man but the old testament doesn't explain the meaning of the second goat it doesn't explain the meaning of the second goat and that's why there's confusion as we will see that's why there's confusion as we will see so what i'd like to do for a little bit now in the sermon is to talk about the different ideas about the day of atonement and why these different ideas exist and i want to look at a big picture because i think sometimes when you look at the big picture you begin to appreciate well here's where they got off track and this is what we've taught and this is why we've taught it you know when i was teaching a lot of times i would say okay you've proven this what what happens if you turn the whole argument around and sometimes oh then it even makes more sense whenever you see the opposite sides of the argument so let's look at a couple of differences as i mentioned muslims fast on the day of atonement they don't call it day of atonement but they fast on this period of time now why would they fast on the same day that the jews would be fasting where did muhammad get his ideas he got him from the jews some of them he got some other ideas from other places but they fast on this day it's interesting too that the islam they teach that it's not fair to put sins on an innocent person it's not fair to put sins on an innocent person you know which you know jesus christ voluntarily took the sins of other people on himself but the muslims also realize that a person must bear their own guilt so they're partly right and partly wrong you're partly right that each guilty person has to bear their own sin but uh this thing about god not being fair putting the sins on an innocent person god has chosen to do that and jesus christ agreed to do that now in the muslim world about 90 of muslims are sunni muslims and they observe a day of remembrance a day of remembrance the most sunni muslims do not live in iraq and iran they're scattered over north africa through southeast asia and so on their day of remembrance again reflects somewhat of the jewish influence that god saved moses and the israelites from pharaoh going through the red sea this is why they have a day of remembrance so they do the same thing that jews do they look backwards they remember what happened in the past they're not looking to the future shia muslims it's about 10 of muslims and these are mainly the ones that live in iraq and iran in that particular area fast on this day but it's a remembrance of the martyrdom of muhammad's great-grandson in a battle so they're fasting for different reasons but they also described this day as a time to draw closer to allah to pray to acknowledge their personal sins and to give to charity now why would they do that because the jews give to charity on this day so they've picked up certain ideas that they've continued with so while the muslims fast they don't understand a lot of things about today but they do understand certain things that they should fast but let's move to the jews because they keep this day as a day of atonement they fast on this day just like um like we do they refer to it as yom kippur or the day of affliction uh the hebrew words kpar or kapoor have to do with affliction has to do with fasting and we didn't look at the scripture because i think i left it off my notes but in psalm 35 and verse 13 maybe just jot it down it mentions that david humbled himself with prayer and fasting now the word for humble there is ana in the hebrew a-n-a-h and it's the same word that is used in leviticus talking about afflicting your soul so the reason that we afflict our souls the way we do it we fast on that day with prayer and fasting and we'll talk a little bit more about why we fast a little bit later in the sermon let's look at how the jews observe the day of atonement it's the day of affliction it's the culmination of ten days of penance in other words the ten days begin at trumpets and then during the 10 days from trumpets to atonement they examine themselves it's a time of self-examination for them now we do this during the days of unleavened bread and passover but the jews do this during the days of penance it's a time of self-examination where they're to examine themselves and then they have a little ceremony that they do of tossing either some pebbles or paper with their sins on it into a body of water this is what they do you might ask why do they do that if you jot it down and check it up later in micah chapter 7 verse 19 micah 7 verse 19. it says god will view our sins basically like you'll throw them into the sea they'll throw them away so the jews are doing this following instructions and following what they read in the old testament so they'll find a body of water whereas a pond or a lake or a stream or a river or the ocean if they're near it to throw things into the their sins into that body of water you notice these are things they're doing for themselves you spot your own sins and then you throw them away and god will forgive them for them uh davidson was a day of personal reconciliation with god now the muslims also view this as a day to get closer to allah and the jews are doing this to get closer to god i think the belief is in the jewish community if you do a good job during these days of atonement or the 10 days of penance your fate will be sealed for the coming year you'll be in good shape in other words you've examined yourselves you get rid of your sins and then the next year will be really good and they also eat sweets on the day of a tunnel so that the next year will be sweeter than the past year these are traditions these are traditions that they do for the jews the first goat that dies on her that was killed represents the sins for the people were being killed for the sins of the people and this was the goat as we read in leviticus 16 was for the lord they killed the goat for the sacrifice and that's for the lord the second goat as we read was for the scapegoat or for azazel but it's interesting when you read the jewish literature and even the messianic literature there are numerous ideas of what the second goat means numerous ideas i want to quote from a paper entitled the scapegoat the scapegoat shame and guilt goat shame and guilt look up the title you can find it on the internet it was written by sir jonathan sack not mcnair but sir jonathan sax he happens to be the chief rabbi who has been the chief rabbi of the united hebrew congregations in the commonwealth and he's occupied that office for over 20 years he's also written about 25 books so here's an authority on the hebrew around the jewish views of the scapegoat or the the second goat in his paper he mentions there are several theories there are several theories about what the second goat means so he's not saying this is what it means this is several theories and you can keep track of the numbers number one is a place it's a place geographically a steep rocky waste gland waste land and he says that is where the um uh they took the goat and pushed it over the cliff till it died but we didn't read that in leviticus 16. it says you take him into the wasteland and you'd let him go there doesn't say you push him over a cliff and kill him so that that's not biblically correct so place that's number one number two he said it could be where some people think it's a demon or possibly satan and is banished into this wilderness to propitiate demonic forces so it's kind of like an offering but we're told in leviticus what wasn't 17 that uh we're not to do that or the jews were not the israelites were not to do that he says we blow the trumpet to confuse satan well that's not quite why the trumpet was blown hussein loves noise and confusion and probably the more noise the better number three the first goat eliminates now this is jonathan sacks and he's talking about he says we can be informed from anthropology studies of anthropology not the bible but studies of anthropology the first goat eliminates guilt which is a personal issue first goat eliminates guilt was a personal issue that's your sins the second goat eliminates shame it eliminates shame that's more of a public thing now none of this we didn't read any of this in leviticus 16. he says shame is more of a social issue and i think i read something else that uh jonathan sachs had put together it was kind of his own feeling that the two goats together represent our two natures our two natures one is the nature that you have you want to obey god the second one is the nature that you have that doesn't want to obey god so that's i think reason number four the point is that the jews recognized neither goat as representing jesus christ because they don't accept the new testament and they don't accept the new testament therefore they don't have a clear idea of what either one of these goats represent when you boil it down what about messianic jews because they believe in jesus they keep the holy days they use the bible old testament new testament another article you can unload download called mystery of the scapegoat mystery of the scapegoat and this is published by a messianic jewish organization and they also mentioned there are many different ideas about the second goat many different ideas about the second goat one idea would be it's a place a geographical place another idea is that is a goat sent away it's a goat sent away so that's a second explanation and this source messianic jews say the idea of pushing the goat over the cliff and die is a rabbinical fabrication in other words the rabbis have come up with this idea it's not in the bible but then they go on and said the two goats some people feel are jacob and esau now it says because they resemble each other but when you read the accounts of jacob and esau they didn't resemble each other one was hairy and the other one wasn't but this is an idea that they're throwing out it could also be two fallen angels that you can read about in genesis chapter 6 where the angels two angels convinced god if you just make us let us go back and live in history and you know we'll straighten things out but they they didn't do that i mean these are ideas that are out there um they said it could represent satan but their preference is and this would be theory number six or seven or eight their preference is that the second goat represents the two roles of jesus christ the two roles of jesus christ that he would first die for our sins and then he would carry those sins away into the wilderness that he would carry those sins away now where they're getting this is really from mainstream christianity as we will see in just a minute mainstream christianity most mainstream christians do not observe the day of atonement so they're not plugged into a holy day cycle they're not plugged into a holy day cycle they don't fast on this day so they're not doing the same thing that we do because it's just not their focus they're not into holy days i i are one i was i grew up in protestant churches we never talked about day of atonement we talked about christmas talked about easter but we didn't talk about day of atonement or the feast of tabernacles or the feast or trumpets where does this idea come from that the two goats represent two roles of jesus christ that he died for our sins then he bore or sins away outside the camp i think i mentioned this in a sermon i gave a month or so ago the idea comes from the early church fathers as the the catholics would say or early church writers it doesn't come from the bible these early church writers it mentions and this was mentioned in one of the articles from the epistle of barnabas which was later declared an apocryphal book from justin martyr [Music] who lived in the i think the second century tertullian second century and a fellow by the name of origin who lived in the 3rd century now let me just mention what these people also believed what they also thought they speculated at one point in time the first goat was jesus christ at his first coming and then the second goat was jesus christ at his second coming origen who lived in third century very uh wrote an awful lot of things he was kind of all over the place depending on what time period in his life you look at he was apparently from alexandria and they got into the allegorical explanation of scripture in other words they look for parallels and this and the other thing at one point he was saying that the first goat was the thief on the cross and then later he said it was jesus christ regarding the second goat at one point he said it was satan at another point he said it was barabbas and another point later in his life it was jesus christ so you take your pick in other words these these are all the theories that are floating around because the old testament doesn't define who that second goat is it's just not there you've got to go to the new testament and if you don't go to the new testament which the jews don't accept they're going to come up with with other ideas that appear logical but they're not scriptural so did jesus die for the sins of the people and then carry them away into the wilderness let's look at a couple of things in leviticus 16 we're told that the first goat was killed for the sins of the people but you have to go to the new testament to find out the meaning of this symbolism in romans 5 and verse 10 let's just go there quickly romans 5. and verse 10 and there's a number of scriptures that you can go to that say pretty much the same thing is for when we were enemies of god we were reconciled to god through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life so we're reconciled to god by the death of jesus christ again the jews look at the 10 days of penance as a time of personal reconciliation but the bible says we're reconciled by his death not by his uh being driven into the wilderness we're reconciled by his death hebrews 9 verses 22 to 28 it says where there's no blood shed there's no remission of sins so for sins to be forgiven there's got to be a sacrifice oh there's got to be a death there's got to be bloodshed and that's what happens with the first goat it comes to the second goat it says in leviticus 16 it bears the sins into a wasteland now is that what jesus did one scripture we can go to is first peter 2 24 first peter 2 24 you know i grew up in canfield ohio and lived right along route 224 so this is something i used to remember the scripture by first peter 2 verse 24 it mentions there he himself talking about jesus christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree he didn't bear them into the wilderness he bore them on a tree he died he died for our sins so you can't use this idea that the second goat was jesus christ bearing our sins into the wilderness because that's not what jesus did you know what all these sources overlook the jews overlook it because they don't use the new testament the messianic jews while they use the new testament the old testament they bought into christian ideas or ideas by the mainstream christian churches about the two natures of christ being the two goats but notice in verse verses one two three of revelation 20. and this is the source that is is either not mentioned by the jews or the messianic jews or or mainstream christians or if they do mention it they kind of slide off of it and say well that's not really that important in verse 1 of chapter 20 revelation and i saw an angel coming down from heaven having a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon that serpent of old the devil and bound him for a thousand years and cast him into a bottomless pit shut him up with a seal on him so that he should not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished you know jesus christ was not led off into the wilderness with a chain or a rope jesus christ voluntarily gave his life for our sins the only thing that really makes sense when you go to the new testament to explain the old are these scriptures in revelation 20 verses 1 to 3. so the new testament gives us the key really these three verses to understanding the identity of the second goat again the jews are not going to go to this because they don't accept the new testament so if you're looking to the jews to explain what these goats mean what did jesus tell the scribes and the pharisees it says you're blind you're blind and the blind are leading the blind and when people come up with ideas that are really not scriptural they're not leading people down to the truth or leading them away from the truth there was a paper published by one of the other churches of god not too long ago in a magazine claiming or basically stating that the two goats are the two natures of jesus christ and this circulates around from time to time the idea comes from not the bible it comes from these early church writers these early church writers that were not part of the true church of god so this is where these ideas come from let me just mention a couple arguments that are mentioned he said well the two goats were chosen they had to be without blemish so it can't be the first the second goat can't be satan but what do we read in ezekiel chapter 28 verse 15 how was satan created perfect he was created perfect in wisdom perfect in beauty i think we tend to look at satan through the eyes of artists in the middle ages got horns he's got a tail and his ugly character but if he was created beauty or created perfect in beauty perfect in wisdom we also read in i think it's in second corinthians 11 14. ii corinthians 11 14 that he can appear as an angel of light he can appear like something he's not really another argument is that the two ghosts represent two birds uh in the cleansing ceremony for lepers and this is in leviticus 14 verses one to seven leviticus 14 1 7 that the priest was to go to a person outside the camp who had leprosy and make a decision uh they've either been cured or they're over it or they're not if they were they were to off take two birds take two birds and kill one and then let the other one go free let them go free not dragged into the wilderness and put in a terrible place but just let him go free look up the words which is let him go free or into an open field and that's a very pleasant place if you go hunting for pheasants or things like that you don't go to a wasteland you go to a cornfield or something like that that's been cut over and there's plenty of birds there because there's cover it's a pleasant place to be but actually take a goat and this was probably apparently during the mating season the goat didn't want to go where it was going to be taken so it had to be led out by a chain or a rope or something so while these two examples leviticus 14 and also leviticus 16. there are two birds and they're two goats but they're very different things they're very different things but this is one of the ideas that's thrown up well you know it could be like the two birds i think the jews have accustomed too that sometimes they'll get a chicken or something and wave it over their head and this is the idea of getting rid of sins but it goes back to this this parallel in leviticus 14. i would encourage you if you've not done so to read the article that mr nathan has written the tale of two goats that's in the the living church news of september october 2019 the one that's currently out and he goes through some of the grammar and so on and he's covering some things i'm not covering here but we should understand these things so we're not blown away you know i think back to what happened in the worldwide church of god when it came apart back in the 70s that a lot of things were thrown out then it was kind of the first time i heard them thrown out in that situation they said you know the real gospel we read about in first corinthians 15 the life and the death and the resurrection of jesus christ doesn't say anything about the kingdom but this is the real gospel okay read through first corinthians 15. paul is addressing the question of whether or not there is a resurrection that's why he's not talking about the kingdom of god there he was focused with that because that gospel that's described in first corinthians 15 does not negate when jesus christ came into galilee preaching in mark 1 verses 14 and 15 he came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of god but these young men were throwing this out that this is really the gospel i remember talking to an individual that was in college when we were there and during this period of time and i i said joe his name wasn't joe said joe what is the gospel he said well the life and death and resurrection of jesus christ well that's part of it that's part of it but it doesn't negate the gospel again one of those young men gave a presentation in one of our conferences and he was trying to show that the gospel wasn't always about the kingdom he said you know there's only about three places in the new testament where it says the gospel of the kingdom of god he said but look over here just says the gospel well look at mark 1 and look at mark 16 when when mark says in in chapter 16 about the gospel he's talking about the same gospel that he was talking about in mark chapter 1. but these things are thrown out there when you first hear it it sounds like well maybe maybe that's right or wrong but you got to take the time dig into it you realize no no no they're playing games they're playing word games so we need to be able to answer these questions that come up we need to be able to deal with these things so what kind of conclusions do we draw or can we draw about atonement and the goats whenever we look at this big picture we looked at what the muslims do what the jews do what messianic jews do what mainstream christians do what conclusions can we draw the easiest one is muslims and jews messianic jews mainstream christians and even some people in church of god have different ideas they have different ideas about atonement and about the goats that's just a fact so the question is what is the truth what is the truth what is right as i mentioned muslims keep the day of atonement where they fast anyways and they call the name they call the the day by different names but again they're looking backwards and this is pretty much what the jews do uh passover days of unleavened bread the jews view this as looking back and rehearsing coming out of egypt it's not wrong to do that it would do that too but they're not looking ahead they're not looking to the future they're looking backwards the jews recognize the the first goat is killed for the sins of of the people but they don't connect it with jesus christ they don't connect that with jesus christ even though christ came and died for the sins of mankind their focus is pretty much on um getting rid of personal sins again we do this as an exercise during passover in the days of unleavened bread why because paul tells us in first corinthians five first corinthians 10 first corinthians 5 he says let us keep the feast not with the old leaven but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth paul was apparently writing about that time during the passover and days of unleavened bread and first corinthians 11 he's talking about the passover the bread and the wine and that we're to examine ourselves so we do this self-examination during the passover and days of unleavened bread the jews are focused on coming out of egypt during the days of atonement they're focused on getting rid of personal sins throwing them in in some water and yet the meaning of atonement is is more than just personal issues it's a much bigger issue much bigger issue as i mentioned the messianic jews take their idea of the two natures of christ from the same first second and third century writers and this would be good to read a little bit about justin justin martyr and about the epistle of barnabas and about origen and tortulion these guys were anti-jewish very much anti-jewish they didn't want anything to do with any jewish tradition so they just we don't even go there so they're very anti-jewish a number of these individuals also promoted the eighth day sabbath so we don't want to keep that old seventh day we've got a better covenant now we can keep the eighth day and they have all kind of arguments but they're the same guys that are promoting the uh the idea that they're two natures of christ so they were also promoting the eighth day sabbath and they ignore revelation 20 verses 1 2 and 3. so they're not even looking there for answers the mainstream christianity also rejects the holy days they don't keep the holy days and as a result they lose track of the fact that god has a plan and purpose that he's working out in this earth if you don't understand that that you're going to miss these things you know i think as mr nathan points out in his article when you look at the story flow of the book of revelation you look at the story flow of the book of revelation chapters 8 9 9-11 is talking about the return of jesus christ in revelation 17 and 18 talking about things going to happen when christ returns or just before we re you know we talk about those things during the feast of trumpets in revelation chapter 20 it talks about satan being bound so satan is bound between the period of time that jesus christ returns and the feast of tabernacles which is talked about in revelation 20 verses 4 to 6. so if you just read revelation 20 by itself it doesn't really connect to atonement but whenever you connect the angel that came with the chain with the fit man in the in leviticus 16 you've got a connection that gives you a a time slot that connects scripturally so when you look at that story flow and mr nathan brings us out in his article it makes sense our explanation so let's ask another question what are the consequences what are the consequences when we buy into this idea that the second goat represents the two natures of christ there are consequences number one it eliminates satan from the plan of god it eliminates satan from the plan of god it's just he's not mentioned he's not mentioned and yet from genesis until revelation satan plays a big role in what's happening in this world and when you eliminate talking about him and eliminate a holy day that shows what's going to happen to him you lose you lose the plot you lose the big picture that's one consequence a second consequence is that jesus christ when you say he's the second goat he's actually assigned the role that satan is going to play see it's a deception it's a deception and this is the way satan operates he puts the blame on other people so when you view the second goat as jesus christ this is actually the role that satan is going to play he is the one that's going to be banished he is the one who's going to be bound for a thousand years but there's some other consequences number three is related to number two satan has projected his fate on jesus christ christ is not going to be bound for a thousand years satan is going to be bound for a thousand years i think as mr nathan points out in his article and the word wasteland there can mean a place of solitary confinement or solitude you're going to be put in a place where you're not going to bother anybody you're not going to deceive anybody anymore and number four another consequence when we fail to understand the second goat of atonement you lose sight of a major step in the plan of god you literally lose sight of a major step in the plan of god the binding of satan before the millennium begins so the paper that's kind of floating around and some of these other ideas these are not little things they're not little things they'll knock people way off course if we buy into these things again you might think well i'm not really into theory i'm really not into these things but you know when i first came into the church i wasn't either i was more interested in the israelites and ancient history and stuff like that you know after serving in church administration for i don't know what 10 11 12 13 14 years the issues that come up every year several times a year are doctrinal questions they're doctrinal issues that somebody gets off the internet or they hear this or they hear that and then we have to deal with it i wouldn't mind passing that on somebody else some of these issues have come up we've talked about in the council of elders remember mr pardeen one time says do we have to go over this again we've gone over this about every five or ten years that comes up but i think that's one of the reasons we read in second timothy chapter four verse one in season and out of season we've got to cover these issues otherwise they'll get people off in different directions let's conclude um a couple more minutes here i want to finish early today it was it is that's my goal and we're not there yet you know we read in second uh corinthians chapter 2 verse 11. ii corinthians 2 11 says beware of satan's devices beware of saints devices he uses devices as i just mentioned some of these doctrinal issues come up every five or ten years or sometimes a couple of times a year but satan has his device he doesn't change you know he lied to adam and eve in the garden he said you you eat that fruit and you'll be like god why did he bring that up because he wanted to be like god he wanted to be like god so he's passing on his ideas to them what we were just talking about is satan redirects he's trying to redirect attention away from himself and his methods he's just redirecting things sometimes you get into conversations you want to ask somebody something didn't you tell me that oh it's beautiful outside today you change the subject you redirect the conversation and what satan is doing is trying to redirect attention away from himself and his methods so he becomes invisible i came across a study that was actually done by somebody at notre dame university it was a study of sermons that were given in the catholic church and the comment was made in this study we hardly hear any sermons or hardly any sermons are given anymore about satan hardly any sermons are given anymore about satan now it's interesting if you think about this we've got a booklet on the proof of the bible we've got a booklet on the real god we don't have a booklet on the real sign mr smith did give a program recently on the origin and aspects of satan if we don't talk about these things then there's a big void again you've got to be careful you've got to be careful though i remember when i was first coming into the church i was buying some books and was learning about the spirit world and i picked up a book it was about two or three inches thick it was about the spirit world and i started just leafing through the pictures and a couple of places where this one guy was suspended in midair and they were passing things underneath another guy was climbing up with a rope but the rope was not attached to anything there is a real spirit world but the world doesn't think that way anymore it's just superstition but in doing research for the sermon apparently as a television series has to do with the supernatural it's been running for about 15 seasons it's about two brothers and they're chasing ghosts and chasing demons and whatever i think two or three of the episodes one of the demons was named azel and it turns out he was satan i got to thinking where did this guy come up with this idea of naming one of the demons as isil he was a jew he was the writer and the producer he was familiar with the name because it's linked with atonement as one of the jewish traditions i suspected that before i started looking i wonder if this guy's a jew and sure enough he was a jew but he was familiar with the term he was familiar with the term it was worked into the script but people look at that stuff that's not really real it's just television program as i mentioned satan is not real today to many people i want to talk about this for just a little bit as one of the papers i went through mentioned that the first 1700 years of what we call the christian era from christ's birth up until now until almost now first 1700 years was no doubt that satan was real as long as the bible had an influence on our society you go to the puritans and they'll tell you to say it was real um they were very familiar with that but about 1700 the enlightenment began in europe and it began in partly as france reaction against the authority of the catholic church but secular thinkers began to reject ideas about satan ideas about demons about miracles that's suspicious we can't verify it scientifically so just throw it out the attitude has come down to us today along with the idea that um there are no absolute values there's no right and wrong there's no such thing as good and evil so whatever you decide that's where these ideas come from what has been the impact of those that thinking on us today new york times did a study in 1997 so we're looking almost 30 years ago they asked people questions do you believe in god and do you believe in a real devil this was 30 years ago 95 percent of americans said they believed in god 62 percent of americans said they did not believe in a real devil now my guess is that the number that believe in god is probably going down a bit the number that and don't believe in the real devil is probably going up i mean this has been the impact on our society today i came across another book it was entitled the death of satan now it's not talking about satan dying he's talking about the idea of satan has died the idea that there is evil has died this guy's a professor at columbia university graduated from harvard and the book is about just the idea of satan in our society today and he says it's the words of the word satan and the word evil are just not part of our vocabulary today so you're not an evil person you have a psychological problem you might be mentally ills it's all psychological but it's not real but from a biblical standpoint it is very real uh he makes the comments here sin and evil are obsolete terms today science has removed the need for religion for a religious explanation he's not far off on some of his comments he says we see evil everywhere but satan and evil are never mentioned it's just some problem so we don't talk about it today he says we've deluded ourselves to think society can function without a sense of evil we've deluded ourselves to think that we can function as society without a sense of evil again when you take satan out of the equation that atonement has nothing to do with him all this does is promote the idea well there's no saying we don't have to worry about that but we do you know we're told in first peter 5 i think it is verses 6 7 8 that saint is an adversary he is our adversary he wants to destroy us he wants to deceive us so the lesson of atonement is basically that there is an unseen world and focuses on satan in that sense but god is real satan is real second corinthians 4 4 says satan is the god of this world and he's blinded people he's blinded him to the truth he's blinded them to the fact that there is a real unseen world and that satan really does exist you know the second goat that is banished by a fit man on atonement reminds us of a major step in god's plan i'm going to skip over a section here on what does the bible reveal about satan you might be good to review some of these scriptures on your own isaiah 14 it talks about lucifer rebelled against god he wanted to be like god that's what drove his rebellion it was pride and that's one of the reasons we fast today is so that we can be sensitive to the fact that we can all have pride that can carry us away one way or the other ezekiel 28 when you read the commentaries on a couple of these chapters these are the most difficult chapters in the bible because they don't want to acknowledge that it's talking about more than just the king of tyre or the prince of tyre is talking about the prince of darkness but the commentaries don't want to go that direction revelation 12 says he drew a third of the angels with him so he's a pretty convincing character not this ugly guy with a pitchfork in the tail and whatever you know making faces at each other a very smooth operator very smooth operator he's an accuser deceiver john 8 44 says he's a liar and a murderer that's where the problems in the society come from today ephesians 2 2 he's the prince of the power of the air he influences thoughts and actions and you've got to be careful where these thoughts come from you've got to be careful where they come from i don't know how many times i've gotten the call i think mr weston's probably got similar things somebody said you know i've got something god has shown me and you you really need to listen to me because this will make all the difference in the world for the church no we've heard it before we've rejected it before and we're not going to get down that path why is jesus coming back just a couple more questions here why is jesus coming back he's coming back as the savior of the world he's coming back as the savior of the world and he's also coming back to save the elect you know we read in matthew 24 verses 37 action 22 matthew 24 22 unless those days are shortened no flesh would be saved but for the sake of the elect christ is coming back that's you that's me that's our opportunity to be saved when he returns you know we read in matthew 24 37 and 38 the conditions at the time of his return are going to be as in the days of noah when people were marrying and giving and marrying i think sometimes we can read over well it's just routine no it's more than that as in the days of noah go back and read genesis chapter 6 every thought of every person was evil was wicked the earth was filled with violence everything was corrupted and we look and we see that today and some people well it's just the way it is you know it's getting worse no it's going to be as in the days of noah and god intervened and destroyed that world and that's what we're looking forward to and that's what's coming why do we fast on atonement again the jews and the muslims it's an inward thing you look inside you get your act cleaned up and hopefully next year is going to be better because you've thrown all your sins in the water it's more than that turn isaiah chapter 58 isaiah chapter 58 and i'd encourage you to read the whole chapter we don't have time to do that today isaiah 58 beginning in verse 1 it talks about cry a lot spare not lift up your voice like a trumpet tell my people their transgressions in the house of jacob their sins and talks about how they love to come before god i think devout jews would do the same thing devout professing christians would do the same thing you love to go to church we've got a lot of churches here in charlotte and they keep christmas and they keep peace and do all these things he said but this is not what i'm looking for they fast just like we're fasting but notice in verse six says is this not the fast that i have chosen this is not a personal thing this is the fast that i have chosen to lose the bonds let me just read it through quickly to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo heavy burdens to let the oppressed go free that you break every yoke is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring your house bring to your house the poor who are cast out when you see the naked you clothe them he said this is the fast that i want to focus on it's not me myself it's not i it's on the world it's outward let me just make a few comments and fill the fill in the blanks maybe as an exercise at home put in loose the bonds of wickedness what does that mean what does that mean when you lose those bonds you get rid of those things it means getting rid of the sex and violence in the media today these things are wicked getting rid of the corruption in business and governments the lies satan's a liar and yet people are told today you might be a homosexual because you were born that way that's a lie there are environmental influences but there's no gene there's no gene that says you are young people are told you might be yeah if you think you're a woman and you're a man well you might be it was a paper put out by a public health person up in rhode island that said that transsexualism is a fad it is a fad i think they called it a social not disease but a social condition the lady that produced the paper was told you can't publish that by other faculty by the dean of the school it's a fad so the studies show that if a girl is in a group of girls and one or two or three of them said they're transsexual two or three other ones will say that they're transsexual too just a matter of time by being around people like that drag queen story hours i actually have a man dressed up like a woman reading stories to children in a public library as a number that put the studies show all this is going to do is feed the pornographic industry which is billions of dollars because you're pointing people in that direction this is the wickedness of god says this is going to stop this will stop whenever satan is bound false religion we could go into a lot of things here but there's a a religion in southeast asia a festival called taipoosam typosom it's a taoist thing called the vegetarian festival it's a festival to nine emperor gods in which people go into a trance and then they cut their cheeks and stick sores through it or whatever go on the internet look it up is gross but what these people are doing is inviting a spirit to come in their bodies now this is just one example of false religions but people are doing that and they believe that if they do that they'll protect their community from these evil spirits these are just some of the things undo heavy burdens you know the money that's spent by america on defense billions of dollars could be spent on education be spent on redeveloping cities whatever divorce a burden i've got a book on my bookshelf 23 years a study of 23 years of divorce and people are told today well you can't get along it's better that you separate and yet there are consequences to the children there are consequences to a community this is the stuff that's going to end when satan is bound let the oppressed go free a lot of the immigration today is driven by wars disasters gang violence when that is stopped the immigration is going to stop break every yoke they estimate there are 40 million slaves in the world today forty million and about four hundred thousand in america they're slaves in domestic work they're slaves in sex trade their slaves in number of things i think a big chunk of those slaves are forced marriages somebody from someplace else wants a wife i'll catch you one sell them to you when slavery was that was going on in the south when you bought a slave it was equivalent of a cost of about forty thousand dollars in our money today cost of a slave today that we were just talking about about ninety dollars this is the world that we live in today this is the world that's going to stop when satan is bound and talks about feeding the hungry they estimate there are over 800 million people that are starving or malnourished in the world today the poor about 730 million homeless they estimate 100 million when you go home tonight and you break your fast think about you're having something to eat and over 800 million people will have very little to eat or nothing will you go home go to bed tonight think about the fact that there are 100 million homeless people in the world so when we're fasting on day of atonement god says this is the fast that i'm concerned about lifting these burdens letting the oppressed go free think about that we've tended to focus i think in the past of being at one with god just me me and god which is not wrong we need to be thinking about that but god says on the day of atonement satan is going to be bound and the whole world is going to be free the whole world is going to have the opportunity to understand the truth the whole world is going to have an opportunity to live right and to have food to eat and a place to live brethren this is why we keep the days of atonement or the day of atonement to focus beyond ourselves not just on our own personal problems but on the problems of this world and the fact that sane is going to be bound this day pictures that the cause of the problem is going to be banished for a thousand years i would encourage you to read isaiah 25 verses 6 to 9 talks about when christ returns every tear is going to be wiped away you look at the tears that are shed today in the world because of the evils and then read romans chapter 8 verses 14 through 24 talks about the whole creation groans and travail waiting for the revelation or the revealing of the sons of god a time we're going to have a chance to lift these burdens the day of atonement as i mentioned the very beginning it's interesting it's unique unique united unique and it's also a mystery to most of the world because they don't understand the dimension that is revealed in the new testament that satan is actually going to be bound and all these things are eventually going to be stopped it's a day for rejoicing even though we're fasting i hope you have a good feast you

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Published: Wed Sep 30 2020